Monday, February 2, 2009

February Comfort Food

Last night I was in the mood for "Down Home" food. Ham Steak with pan gravy, Garlic Mashed Potato and Green Salad seemed to fill the bill. I pulled some frozen "Fisher Family Hornschen" dough out of the freezer and we had those with Umpqua's Vanilla Bean ice cream for dessert. Quick and easy Winter food.

To keep the Ham from being 'boring', I mixed a tablespoon of Honey with two tablespoons of BBQ sauce and spooned it on while the ham was in the pan sauteing. Be careful not to burn the sauce, though, the honey (sugar) is quick to blacken!

After the Ham was nicely browned, I removed it from the pan and added a little butter and flour to make the gravy and releae the browned bits. This step is why you don't want the honey/BBQ sauce mix to burn - the flavor of burned sauce is not pleasant and will taint your gravy. (Yeech!) Add about 1 1/2 to 2 Cups of milk (it is OK to use non-fat, even though there is butter in the gravy - whatever you have got is fine) and slowly reduce the gravy to the desired consistency. When the gravy is 'almost there', put the Ham back in the pan to warm up again. Enjoy.